Soccer & Football is over!! We can start hiking again!

With the fall sports season over we were able to resume our hiking this past weekend.  We stayed close to home and headed out to Soderberg trailhead.  We followed the Tower Trail, Stout, and Sawmill Trails for a small hike.  There was a little fall color left to be had 

and I even stumbled upon this aster at the end of it's bloom cycle.

We saw a couple of deer (not that this was a great photo of one...it is missing it's head).

  These are my crazy trail running children & hubby.  Apparently they are in pretty good shape since they managed about a mile.  I guess I will have to dress for the occasion next time!

Hike: Horsetooth Park
Trails Used:  Soderberg Trailhead to Tower Trail, to Stout Trail, to Sawmill, and back

Distance:  4.89 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.4 mph
Overall Time: 2 hr, 2 min
Total Ascent: 836 ft.

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

We went downtown this weekend to see the end of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.  The hubby biked up to the reservoir to see some of the race and then met us down there.  It was a pretty exciting atmosphere.  All the support cars, advertisers, and police sped by us before the bikes passed.  

Coming down from Horsetooth Reservoir

Nearing the finish in old town

 After the race we had a tour on the trains that were parked in the middle of downtown.  We've never known the city to shut down the train tracks for any event!  It was pretty cool seeing the inside.

We promised the kids if they made the bike ride and were patient with us they could have their first ever Slurpee.  

Bike: Old Town

Trails Used: Power Line to Spring Creek to Remington to Old Town, to CSU, to Mason Trail, to Boardwalk and home 

Distance: 14.42 miles

Difficulty: Easy (for the adults, not so bad for the kids-this was their longest bike ride ever)
Overall average: 5.4 mph
Overall Time: 2 hr, 41 min
Total Ascent: 111 ft.

Biking 56 Miles through Rist Canyon and Masonville

Started at 6 this morning and had a beautiful but tough bike ride up Rist Canyon, around to Masonville and back home.  I saw 2 deer and quite a few other riders (lots of waving and encouragement from them).  Some lady even told me that she was impressed I'd made it so far with my bike (it's not an official road bike, but not a cruiser either).

I didn't really know if I could go that far going up so many hills so I enlisted the family to be my Sag Wagon just in case. They were suppose to leave at 8:30 and go the way I went so if I was too tired I could just stop whenever I wanted.  I had done 50 miles before but it was with an elevation change of 100 feet (no joke) and not this year.  I actually passed someone on a steep part!  I was feeling good once I knew I had made it over most of the hard part (Rist Canyon.) I had no doubt about my finishing at that point.  Lucky for me since I didn't see my sag wagon until the 50 mile mark! They had taken a nice leisurely morning and jeep ride.  I talked to them and a stop light and finished the bike ride.

I'm now ready for bed (it's only 2:50 pm) and quite sore.  Hopefully, a nice sleep tonight will reinvigorate me for tomorrow!

Bike: Rist Canyon

Trails Used:  Harmony to Overland to Bingham Hill to Rist Canyon to Masonville, to Harmony

Distance: 54.84 miles

Difficulty: Difficult
Overall average: 11.7 mph
Overall Time: 4 hrs, 42 min
Total Ascent: 3644 ft.

Muddy Trails

Muddy trails and high winds at Horsetooth Reservoir today.  The weather in my neighborhood fooled me.  I thought since it was 43 degrees outside and no wind that we would take a little hike/picnic this morning.  Literally within 40 seconds of leaving the car the wind started gusting.  We still walked down to the water but didn't stay long and had to 'picnic' in the back of the car with all the doors shut!  Saturday is suppose to be 50 degrees so I hope we can try again.

 

Mountain Biking/Hiking Trail by Horsetooth

On the President's Day weekend we all went for another hike. This time we did one w/ views of Horsetooth Reservoir. Normally, in the summer, we wouldn't be able to walk this trail due to rattlesnakes. This is the perfect time of year to enjoy this hike. We had a picnic lunch to get energized for the last part of the hike. The views were fantastic but it could have been a little sunnier!

 Looking at this elevation chart makes me laugh.  Daddy kept telling the kids we were on our last hill...as you can see there were a lot of 'last' hills!  When doing anything athletic with Daddy I've learned that nothing he will tell you about distance, last anything, etc. is ever right.  It will always be longer and harder than what he wants you to believe!

 

Hike: Horsetooth Hiking/Biking Trail

Trails Used: ?
Distance: 2.67 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Moving average: 1.2 mph
Moving Time: 2 hrs, 17 min
Total Ascent: 633 ft.

Rattlesnake Fever!!

This was the 2nd one of the afternoon! You can bet we were moving fast!

I don't know if I've seen the park so green before. After all the rain we've had it's almost as lush as a jungle. (I suppose that is all relative since we live in the high prairie!) But I'm telling you....it's vivid! This is the view from the beginning of the Spring Creek Trail going towards Stout trail. You can vaguely see the path we took from the parking lot to the falls down below.
There are really nice views of Horsetooth Reservoir from the Stout Trail. This is a view of Dixon Cove looking east. A little bit after this was our first run in with a rattlesnake. We never saw it but we did hear the rattle. I've never run so fast in my life! Instinct must have taken over since I've never seen or heard one prior to this but at the first noise I was hot footing it out of there!
This old cabin (w/ rusty mattress springs outside) was on Logger's trail I believe.
There were some nice views of Horsetooth rock off Sawmill and the Herrington Trail. Next time I will do the hike early in the morning for better pictures.
Again, look at how green it is!
We were along the Spring Creek trail heading back when we saw the 2nd rattlesnake (Prairie Rattlesnake). This time I got some decent but not great pictures! My mom almost stepped on it this time. For some reason it didn't rattle and let us know it was there. Snakes sure are wicked looking!

Hike: Horsetooth Mountain Park
Trails Used: Horsetooth Falls to Spring Creek to Stout, to Sawmill, to Loggers, to Herrington, to Spring Creek to Horsetooth Falls
Distance: ? miles (forgot to bring the GPS, duh!)
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: ? mph
Moving Time: ~3 hrs, 0 min
Total Ascent: ? ft.
Maximum Elevation: ? ft.

Horsetooth Mountain Park

Another weekend, another rainy day! Will it ever end? I didn't even bring the camera this week because it was spritzing when I left. Good thing since it spritzed the whole way. I thought it was going to be a dreary hike but it did end up being nice since everything was so green and the flowers that were blooming were vivid! I didn't see any wildlife this week but did hear lots of birds. There were numerous deer prints however.

Horsetooth Mountain Park

Went for a hike today hoping it was going to be a pleasant day. It was but the weather sure didn't cooperate. It was 35 and snowing (yes, snowing on April 23rd) when I started and 37 and snowing when I stopped. I was dressed for the weather so it didn't make much of a difference except for my mood: Gloomy! I got to use my new GPS watch (very cool) and tried to take at least one picture today but I forgot to charge my battery in the camera (duh!) I did see 3 mule deer hiking and 3 by the side of the road as I was leaving. I really didn't see much else since my hat was blocking the view and my eyes were locked on the ground! Hopefully, my next post will have much better pictures (or at least one :) ).

Horsetooth Mountain Park
Trails Used: Foot Travel Path to Horsetooth Rock, Wathan to Westridge, Spring Creek Trail, Horsetooth Falls Trail
Distance: 7.12 Miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.2 mph
Moving Time: 2 hrs, 13 min
Total Ascent: 2259 ft.
Maximum elevation: 7132 ft.

Horsetooth Mountain Park

I went for a little hike this weekend. I was planning on doing Red Mountain but we decided that it wouldn't be a great place (plains, very open, few trees) when the 30-40 mph winds arrived. I thought that sticking close to home and finishing quickly seemed like the better option. So we ended up at Horsetooth. We parked at the Soderberg Trailhead. We would have done a longer hike had a storm not been blowing in. Saturday it was 80 degrees (albeit windy) and beautiful. I had committed to tennis already so that left Sunday for a hike. I woke up to it being 52 degrees. The temperature took a nose dive quickly thereafter. The wind and clouds came. The picture below was taken as the bad weather was rolling in. Luckily we got our hike in before the rain came. It turned out to be an okay day for hiking. Some little yellow flowers were just starting to peek out behind the rocks! I'm ready for spring/summer! Lots of bikers and runners were out trying to get their exercise done before the weather turned. There was a ton of smoke from the Crystal Fire blowing down the canyon by the time we finished. We made it back to the car w/ 10 minutes to spare before it started to spit rain and we were safely locked away inside the house by the time it turned to snow. I did do a new route today so that was fun. It started out along the reservoir then crawled up into the hills and back down.

Hopefully I will have my new camera soon and start capturing better pictures. I'm very anxious to get it!

Horsetooth Mountain Park
Trails Used: Swan Johnson, Shoreline, Sawmill, Stout, to Towers, and back on Swan Johnson
Distance: 5.2 Miles (GPS crapped out a couple of times, so this is an estimation)
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.5 mph
Overall average: 3.3 mph
Moving Time: 1 hrs, 17 min
Stopped Time: 4 min, 47 sec
Total Ascent: 861 ft.
Maximum elevation: 6126 ft.

Loooooooooooooonng Hike @ Lory State Park

Well, it was a long one today. I started @ 6:20 a.m. and finished at 11:20 a.m. By the time I ended it was 89 degrees. I don't like heat! It's a good thing I did all the open areas first so the end of the hike was mainly through the trees. I was beat by the time I finished and didn't want to go up another hill if I could help it for the last 3 miles or so. I parked at the Soderberg Trailhead today so that I could do some different trails w/out doing too much mileage. Well, part of that concept worked! It WAS a different trailhead and I did do different trails!

It was a beautiful day and I saw a couple of bucks early on.

The wildflowers were out in force. I even saw some Beebalm today which I normally don't see. The rest of the flowers were pretty typical for the area.


The views of the front range were gorgeous. The boats/hikers/campers were out in full force at Horsetooth Reservoir.

At the end I saw a doe and her baby. The baby was very scared of me and tried to scamper away but wasn't sure which direction to take. I had fun watching!

Horsetooth Mountain Park to Lory State Park
Trails Used: Swan Johnson to Shoreline to Nomad to South Valley Loop to West Valley to Kimmons to Timber to Howard to Mill Creek Link to Logger's Trail to Tower's Trail to Swan Johnson


Distance: 15.3 Miles (I adjusted since I knew the actual time I hiked, the GPS and I didn't get along very well today)
Difficulty: Difficult due to length otherwise moderate
Moving average: 3.4 mph
Overall average: 3.0 mph
Moving Time: 4 hrs, 26 min (adjusted due to defective GPS)
Stopped Time: 32 min, 04 sec
Total Ascent: 2249 ft.
Maximum elevation: 6737 ft.